Why are New Hampshire Unions afraid of ‘worker freedom’?

On Tuesday, Senate Bill 11 (SB 11), AN ACT prohibiting collective bargaining agreements that require employees to join or contribute to a labor union, was heard in the senate committee at the State House. This is a bill that will end the forced unionism in New Hampshire and finally allow workers to have a choice about unions in the state. The hall was filled with Massachusetts union members. They are always bused in for New Hampshire union events. For some reason there never seem to be enough New Hampshire union workers to protest. Either they aren’t interested or they aren’t paid by their unions to miss a day of work to be there.

Right to Work does not end unions nor is it an attempt to “bust unions” as the union scaremongers like to claim. It literally gives workers the freedom to choose whether or not they want to be in the union. Workers can choose to be in the union or they can choose not to be in the union. It’s really that simple.

If New Hampshire Unions are as great as their union bosses like to claim, then they have absolutely nothing to fear. A good union is going to retain its members. A bad union may have issues but that’s on them because they are a bad union for their members. Currently, it takes a lot of effort to de-certify an existing union in a workplace. Given union leaders’ tendencies to bully and threaten people, it’s not something that opponents to the union take lightly.

Union “thuggery” was on full display during the Right-to-Work hearing. Any time a supporter of SB 11 was providing testimony, the union members in the audience would yell things out, boo and essentially try to drown out the speaker. Clearly these people don’t believe in others having differing opinions nor do they believe others should be allowed to freely express themselves.

In Right-to-Work states, unions are stronger for their members because they have to be competitive to keep those members. Unions are supposed to be about their members, not their favored politicians. This is another reason unions don’t want to allow workers to have the freedom to choose. They want to keep pushing their politics without the workers having a say. If the workers had a choice and the unions didn’t listen to a majority of members, they’d lose members in droves.

Again, Right-to-Work does not end unions. All it simply does is give workers the freedom to choose if they want to pay dues for representation or represent themselves. Workers make the decision, not a government mandate that forces their decision. And again, there is no such thing as a “free rider.” Union Executives choose the type of contracts they want to create with a business. If they choose an “exclusionary” contract, they are choosing to represent non-paying employees.

The bill passed out of the senate committee by a vote of 3-2 down party lines. It’s not clear when the bill will be before the entire senate for a vote but you are certainly going to hear lots of union propaganda and fear mongering before that time. The truth is that unions don’t want to lose the control they have over workers. Currently workers are forced to pay no matter what. Currently workers in New Hampshire do not have the freedom to choose if they are in a union shop.